"Aw, Evans, come off it. We were only having a bit of fun."

"Fun?" Lily shot back dangerously, "I highly doubt Severus found it fun." And with that she walked off, not even looking back a James, who could've kicked himself.

"Now what am I going to do?" James muttered to himself, it wasn't like he had never talked to girls before. Hell, for him that was the easy part. He was the Gryffindor Quiditch star after all and always had girls falling all over him. He moodily walked back outside, feeling as though he should have been in higher spirits at the end of his O.W.L.'s, perhaps if Padfoot hadn't been bored, this whole mess could've been avoided. Or perhaps, said the nasty little voice inside his head, it's just as much your fault as it is his.

James mentally shook himself; he knew the voice was right, that if he hadn't done that then him asking Lily to the next Hogsmeade Weekend, the last of the year, may have gone a tad differently.

"Prongs," asked Wormtail, hurrying to him from where they had been sitting at the lake. "What's up? Where'd you disappear to?"

"Hey Wormtail," James replied glumly. "Just made a fool of myself in front of Evans again."

"Well, that's new now is it!" exclaimed Sirius Black sarcastically, one of James best mates in the world. He, Sirius (or Padfoot), Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew), and Remus Lupin (Moony) were his best mates. Together the four of them were known as the Marauders, the biggest group of barney makers Hogwarts has ever seen.

"Did you see old Snivellus' face, it was brilliant"

"I dunno," James replied slowly, a deep look of concentration on his face.

"Well," said Moony fairly, "you two didn't really have to provoke him"

"He came at us first with a wand!" said Sirius outraged.

"And perhaps he would not have had to if the pair of you had left him alone in the first place, all the two of you were doing was trying to get a rise out of him, and it worked didn't it. So I suppose you two must be pretty happy with yourself!" Lupin countered heatedly.

James looked down, but Padfoot was not going to give in that easily. "Oh come on Moony, you know as well as I do that Snape's just a greasy jealous git. Always has been, ever since the first trip here. He's just upset that he can't get a girl he fancies to like him back, and James here can get any girl he wants"

Not any girl, James thought scathingly, Evans will probably never even look at me again.

All the girls that fancied him only did because of his Quidditch, but Lily wasn't impressed by that. She seemed to actually like that old greasy git. Though, come to think of it, James wasn't really even sure why he and Snape hated each other so much.

James suddenly walked away from his friends and went straight up the dormitories. He ignored his friends' shouts asking him where he was going and soon found himself in front of the portrait of the fat lady.

"Fairy Lights"

The portrait swung open at the password and James went through the portrait hole. When he was in the Gryffindor common room he couldn't spot Lily anywhere, but that didn't discourage him. He went straight up to the dormitory that he shared with the other Marauders, and from under a lose floorboard in the corner of the room, James pulled out a very large piece of parchment. The Marauder's Map, it had only been completed a few days ago and James didn't know if it would work. So he did the only thing he could, he spread the map out on his bed and tapped it with his wand while saying "I solemnly that I am up to no good."

And to his amazement, thin lines appeared out of nowhere, crisscrossing this way and that, and they eventually formed a place that James knew very well. It took him a good couple of minutes, but he found her a last. Lily was out on the grounds, in her favourite little alcove of trees. He quickly wiped the map clean ("Mischief Managed") and set off to find her.

James almost ran to the small alcove where Lily was hiding, and was very glad indeed when he found her there alone.

"Lily?" he called softly.

She turned around, and James was surprised to see her crying. The Evans he knew never cried. Well maybe, said that voice in his head again, that's because you know Evans and you need to get to know Lily.

"Oh," she sniffled, "it's you, I thought perhaps… well what do you want?"

"Who'd you think I was?" asked James curiously.

"No one important, at least not…" she trailed off.

"Lily, are you okay?" Lily looked up sharply when James said this.

"What?" said James confused.

"You called me 'Lily'; you only ever call me Evans."

"Oh, yeah... about that… you see… I… well…" but James never got to finish what he wanted to say, for it was at that moment that Lily Evans decided to take action and kissed James Potter full of the lips.

Their kissed seemed to last days. Though of course in could have only been a few moments. When they broke apart they grinned stupidly at each other, knowing what their friends would say. Then Lily's eyes got soft and James cupped his hand on her cheek and pulled her closer to him. His heart seemed to swell at the sight of her and he hugged her close and he put his mouth possessively over hers. And for the moment, Lily liked feeling protected.

Oh tomorrow she would have to set him straight, but for the moment it was nice being alone together in a secluded place, James' hands now on her waist and hers around his neck. He slowly lowered her to the ground, and they spent the next few hours talking about nothing and everything while sneaking a couple of kisses in-between.